This invention relates to the field of computers. More particularly, systems and methods are provided for detecting unwanted or undesirable electronic content, such as spam.
Users of online applications are plagued by spam and other undesired content, such as attempted scams, unsolicited news stories, advertisements posing as news stories, photographs, jokes, and so on. For some applications, such as electronic mail, elaborate schemes have been developed for detecting such content and preventing it from reaching users' computers or inboxes. They do little, however, to identify users who are sending such content and prevent them from using an application to send more.
In some applications, such as those that provide for instant messaging, chat and/or other forms of inter-user communication, messages are delivered to addressees immediately or nearly immediately. With these applications, it may be advantageous to identify persons who send unwanted content and prohibit them from using the application. If this can be done quickly enough, and with a high degree of accuracy, the amount of unwanted content delivered to users can be reduced drastically.